Customer Reviews

Pirates! (Trade Editions)

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This is a great book to anyone interested on this period and in piracy.Angus Konstam's text is both concise and accurate,while Angus McBride's illustrations are certainly some of the best I have ever seen.The book is mostly about British pirates which should be expected,since Osprey is from Great Britain,and British sailors were always inclined towards piratical activities.The sections on pirate warfare and pirate codes are particularly nice,and you get biographies on such pirates as Blackbeard and Captain Kidd as well.The only thing I miss is a color cut-away illustration of a pirate ship.Even though,I must say It's an A+ job from front to back cover.

I got this book and read all of it today, and found it to be a fine and enjoyable to read introduction to Piracy, focusing on European and Colonial American piracy between 1660 and 1730. The author does point out in his introduction that pirates always have, and always will exist, simply in different forms with different tactics. The author also discusses the fine line between legal or semi-legal privateers, and then the truly criminal pirates, as well the as the roles of women and black sailors. The book discusses the following topics:
The Pirate Crew (composition, motivation and dress)
Pirate Warfare (tactics)
Pirate Dens
Pirate Plunder
Pirate Captains and Characters (brief descriptions of 9 piratical careers)
Pirate ships (inlcuding sloops, schooners, brigantines, and square-riggers)
Pirate Codes
Pirate Flags
Pirate Justice
Biblography, plate commentary, and index
The book also has 12 pages of full-color paintings by the incomparable Angus McBride, depicting the pirates themselves along with their weapons, victims, flags, and executioners.

This is an Osprey book, so you need to think in terms of an adult version of the Eyewitness picture books. You shouldn't expect an exhaustively comprehensive treatment of the subject, after all they tend to be only 1/4 inch thick.

So, with expectations aligned, this is a fairly well done treatment of the subject of pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy. There are quite a few pictures to compliment the text and the topics covered include their origins, dress, tactics, flags, ports and ships. Konstam gives us some brief biographies of a few of the famous names like Teach, Bonny, Reade, Rackam, Vane, Every, Bonnet, Kidd and the Dread Pirate Roberts.

An excellent overview suitable for adolescents and adults, for more detail on William Kidd I suggest Richard Zacks' The Pirate Hunter, for more of an overview of piracy through the ages I suggest Konstam's The History of Pirates.

From the Introduction -
"The aim of this book is to strip away the glamour and myth, allowing the true nature of piracy to be revealed. Instead of a life of romantic glamour with crews led by aristocratic swashbuckling heroes, the average pirate was a doomed man, lacking the education, abilities and pragmatism to escape his inevitable fate. A pirate's life was usually nasty, brutish and short."

The Contents are -
P03: introduction
.The Golden Age of Piracy and Sources
P05: The Pirate Crew
.Composition; Motivation; Dress
P09: Pirate Warfare
.Attack using gunfire; Attack by boarding
P14: Pirate Dens
.Port Royal; New Providence; The Carolinas; Madagascar
P16: Pirate Plunder
P17: Pirate Captains and Characters
.Edward Teach (`Blackbeard'); Anne Bonny, Mary Reade and Jack Rackham (`Calico Jack'); Charles Vane; Henry Every (`Long Ben'); Stede Bonnet; William Kidd; Bartholomew Roberts (`Black Bart')
P31: Pirate Ships
.Sloops; Schooners; Brigantines; Three-masted vessels (Square-Riggers)
P33-44: Colour Plates
P48: Pirate Codes
P51: Pirate Flags
P55: Pirate Justice
P59: Bibliography
P60: Plate Commentaries
P64: Index

The Colour Plates -
A: Captain Kidd, 1700. A large figure, fingering his pistols, while in the background 2 pirates bury a chest, and with a ship in the distance
B: Henry Every, 1694. A crowded action scene as Every and his crew prepare to board a larger vessel.
C: Governor Rogers entering New Providence, 1718. This shows the Governor on deck with a couple of crew, with cannon-balls flying as they close with a pirate vessel.
D: Gun and Crew, early 18th century. This shows a gun, crew figures preparing to fire, and a range of utensils and ammunition on display.
E: Anne Bonny and Mary Reede, 1720. This shows the two ladies belabouring their crew, as a Royal Navy vessel approaches.
F: Blackbeard's Last Fight, 1718. This is a two-page fight scene on the deck of Blackbeard's ship.
G: Firearms in the Early 18th Century. This depicts a crewman and a swivel-gun, with a number of smaller firearms and pieces of equipment depicted around him.
H: Stede Bonnet's Execution, 1718. This shows him standing sadly on the back of a cart under the gallows, with the rope around his neck, and a small party of officials in attendance.
I: Bartholomew Roberts, 1723. This shows him in a `Crimson Pirate' costume, standing on a smoking cannon, with various crewmen around him, ready for boarding.
J: Edged Weapons in the Early 18th century. A pirate figure flourishes a cutlass, surrounded by examples of other types of blades, axes and pikes.
K: Pirate Flags. Nine examples of same.

There are many monochrome illustrations, mostly contemporary, supporting the text, which is well-written and readable. The author is an expert on the age of the wooden ship. The colour plates are excellent.

I actually writing this review about Osprey's series of books on piracy by Angus Konstam, Ive got a few of these books, this one, The Pirate Ship, Buccaneers, The Spanish Galleon. First off, these books are very short, around 50 or so pages long, and I think the publisher would have been better served by combining all these books into one big book and selling that for around $40 bucks rather than selling these small books that feel like extended magazine articles. That said, I have to say these books are very well written in that the author give a very concise overview of pirate history, compared to most other books on piracy that just seem to be a big collection of anecdotes that leave you with very little knowledge of the politics and economics involved in the age of piracy. I was also impressed that the author used almost all original art work of the time period rather than using contemporary artists depiction of these events which always seem to rely more on Disney's Pirates of the Carribean rather than factual historic detail. My only wish is that a book would be written on oriental piracy (middle and far east) which seems to get totally ignored by western historians.

From the late sevententh century to the early eighteenth century, piracy was flourishing in the waters off the New World. In this Osprey book, author Angus Konstam presents a brief but at times fascinating account of the brutal thieves that cut their way into cultural conscience. Apart from some descriptions of types of ships, dress, flags, and tactics, there are stories of some of the famous pirates (Black Beard, Bonny and Reade, Every, Kidd, Roberts, and others). The illustrations by the late Angus McBride are quite good and add to the book's enjoyment. If you are a person interested in pirates or just this period in history, then sit back with this book and imagine the spray of the sea and the smell of gunpowder that marked a time of danger on the waters (of course piracy has never gone away so still be careful where one sails).

Angus Konstam creates a vivid picture of the true history, but the illustrations of Angus McBride steal the show. While the book is full of historic sketches, paintings, and cuttings it is the color plates which capture the look and feel of the "Golden Age of Pirates". The book itself does a marvelous job of debunking some of the "Hollywood Myths" about pirates, but is not quite as thorough as it could be. Konstam's "The History of Pirates" is much more comprehensive as it covers all genres and era of piracy. Overall a terrific buy for anyone interested in the real stories of pirates. The plates are very useful for costume and prop design as well.